Local video game chain looks to even score with rival

To that end, Newport Beach, Calif.-based video-game retailer Play N Trade is looking to open up to 50 new stores on Long Island over the next two to three years.

Tony Gioia, a former mortgage broker who now serves as the company’s area developer, said Play N Trade is aggressively looking for locations throughout the region. The company has recently opened Play N Trade stores in Bay Shore and Sayville, and will add Port Jefferson and Miller Place locations in December.

“We’ll open more as fast as we can get them,” Gioia said.

Besides being area developer, Gioia is also a franchisee. Gioia and partner Jason Bryan, a former hospital administrator, opened their first Island Play N Trade franchise in Smithtown (also the company’s first) this summer. They will open their second store this week in Stony Brook and are looking for another location for 2009.

Play N Trade’s expansion follows the fast growth of rival GameStop, which now has more than 4,400 stores in 15 countries, according to its Web site. The publicly traded GameStop bought out Funcoland and Electronics Boutique in recent years, and now has more than 50 stores in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Gioia said his industry has benefited from people spending more time at home and rapid advances in the technology of game systems, which range in price from about $250 to $500.

“And most people have more than one system,” Gioia said.

Once the exclusive bastion of teenagers, video games have become cross-generational. The average age of video game players is 35, and 26 percent of people over age 50 play video games, according to statistics from the Entertainment Software Association.

Video game sales in the United States reached $9.5 billion in 2007, an increase of more than 28 percent from the $7.4 billion sold in 2006.

Jayson Siano, with CB Richard Ellis in Woodbury, is helping Play N Trade in its expansion. Siano said GameStop had a huge head start in the Long Island market, but he will try to use that to his client’s advantage.

“We’ll place stores in the gaps,” Siano said. “We know where they are and where we can potentially out-position them.”

As retail activity slows, Play N Trade will also find good locations vacated by other businesses, the broker said.

“It’s one of the benefits to the tide changing,” Siano said. “The vacancy rates are increasing and franchises can get better real estate than they would have one year ago.”

The 1,500-square-foot Play N Trade store footprint is another advantage for the franchise because it is a common size for shopping centers and Siano said there are very few retailers actively looking for space in that size range right now.

Siano, who admits to shredding a mean Metallica on Guitar Hero, said the home entertainment industry continues to prosper in hard times.

“People are spending less money traveling and more on electronics,” Siano said. “Video games go right after that.”